Airbnb Employee Review

Current Employee – been working at Airbnb full-time for more than a year

Pros – -fabulous product - the ability to help everyday people expand their income and make friends around the world; it's really a wonderful thing that is changing the world one reservation at the time
-The ability to work from home from your first day of employment (if you're in a remote position, but even the SF-based employees can work from home one day a week).
-depending on your job, a new Airbook laptop for your use
-quarterly travel credit (although they put a bunch of restrictions on the use of it, which sort of makes it feel like a rebate)
-the actual Airbnb hosts out in the world, for the most part, are really interesting and remarkable people
-The Customer Support team is full of genuine, friendly, smart, and reliable people.

Cons – Many employees do not receive health insurance or other standard full-time benefits until 6 to 12 months after they begin work with the company, so do not be fooled by the shiny promises on the jobs page. I have had 4 different managers in 1 year and none of them had/have the experience or skills to effectively lead a team. (Leadership is not having a big ego or ordering people around.) No one's word means anything at Airbnb. People say one thing one day and then the next day they do a different thing. This is not me being resistant to innovation or change. I'm talking about basics like meetings you've set up, human resources issues, or even just responding to emails. You really can't rely on anyone to do what they promised. People don't communicate well and there are few people who take responsibility for their actions. People with no experience or expertise make decisions that make absolutely no sense to the people putting those policies into effect. Management rarely communicates to the employees who have to execute these changes nor the community of users who rely on the site what they are planning to change. Airbnb is losing the group of hosts who first joined them before it was a cause celebre, the ones who helped them get where they are today, and it's a shame. It's also losing smart, devoted employees who are tired of being subject to the whims, empty promises, and poor management skills of their supervisors. If you are a smart, mature person with integrity you will have a hard time here because most of the employees are not grown up and do not value or possess critical thinking skills. There's so much more I could say, but these are all the things I wish I had known before I accepted a job there. Working at Airbnb has been a real disappointment.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire middle and upper managers that have actual experience managing people and a proven track record of expertise in their field. That is what it will take to move Airbnb from a startup to a mature company. Core Values is great and all, but what would be better is actually training the staff on how to communicate effectively. Go back and talk to the hosts who were the first 10,000 users on the site. I think you will find that many of them are disillusioned and frustrated.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend